‘The Walking Dead,’ Season 4, Episode 11, ‘Claimed’: TV Recap

Even with the majority of the Grimes clan still scattered amid the outskirts of the former West Georgia Correctional Facility, it is possible to see where “The Walking Dead” is going, and tonight’s episode, “Claimed,” provides the broad outlines of where things are headed.

The storytelling is split among Rick and Carl and Michonne on the one hand, and Glenn, Tara, and the newcomers on the other. The other groups don’t make an appearance, although we know they’re close by. While it’s been months since “Too Far Gone,” the midseason finale, in the timeline of the show it’s been only a few days.

Rick, Carl, and Michonne have settled into something that passes for domestic bliss, in a world ravaged by flesh-eating zombies, that is. Rick’s wounds are healing, and Carl and Michonne are even comfortable enough to tell tales and have a laugh over breakfast. Until Carl inadvertently mentions his sister, who he thinks is dead. That sullens him up good.

We’ve seen the relationship between Carl and Michonne grow and blossom, and this episode furthers that. There really is something genuinely special between them, even as Carl’s relationship with his father remains fractured. Of all the relationships on the show, this one seems the most real. Maybe it’s just good writing, or that Dania Gurira and Chandler Riggs have a real affinity for each other, but Carl and Michonne appear to have something that’s genuine and not at all forced. Which is why she opens up to Carl alone and finally talks about her baby. Their scenes together are maybe the best low-key moments the show produces.

Meanwhile, Glenn and Tara are in the back of Sgt. Abraham Ford’s Army transport, for that is who picked them up on the road. Sgt. Ford is a formidable zombie-killer. Tara even notes that he smiles when he does it, something she’s never seen. Glenn is still unconscious as they ramble up the highway, Tara smartly writing down directions on her hand. When Glenn finally comes to, he’s horrified to see them moving away from the prison, away from Maggie. He forces the truck to stop, and immediately hops out. Remember now, Glenn is still getting over the virus (time really does move slowly on this show), he is not completely healthy. But it doesn’t matter. He wants to find Maggie.

Abraham explains himself to Glenn. He and his companions, Eugene Porter and Rosita Espinoza, are heading north, to Washington. Eugene is a scientist. He’d been in contact with other scientists in the nation’s capital. Then the lines went dead. They’re heading north, he tells Glenn, to put a stop to the zombie apocalypse. To save the world. To ensure that, he needs a fighter like Glenn. Glenn doesn’t care about the world. He cares about his wife.

Rick, meanwhile, is resting in an upstairs bedroom while Michonne and Carl scavenge for supplies. He’s asleep, but there’s an odd moment where it appears he’s reliving a bad dream. There’s a lot of distant shouting. His eyes flutter. Then he wakes. The voices continue. It isn’t a dream at all. There are men in the house. And they sound nasty. He’s unarmed (he gave his Colt Python to Carl), and alone. Yes, he’d already claimed this house. But claims mean little in the post-zombie apocalypse if you can’t back them up. Rick does the only thing he can: he hides under the bed like a child.

These are seriously bad men. One comes upstairs and cases the second floor, then flops down on the bed, practically crushing Rick, who somehow manages to not make a sound, despite his pain (remember, he, too, is still recovering from wounds). Then a second man comes in, who wants the bed. The first man says it’s “claimed.” Poor choice of words. There’s a scuffle, and a fight, and the first guy ends up on the floor, dead, but not before he noticed the man under the bed.

When the bed’s new occupant falls asleep, Rick crawls out from underneath, and takes refuge in another bedroom, then in the bathroom – where he comes across another member of the group. Seems the bathroom, too, was claimed. They scuffle, and Rick kills him (that makes two dead dudes upstairs). He climbs out on the roof, and slips down to the ground, crouched down outside the porch and waiting for Carl and Michonne to return.

Back on the road, Abraham isn’t going to take no for an answer, and neither is Glenn. They get into a bruising fistfight, which attracts a clutch of walkers that only Eugene notices. He grabs a rifle, and starts firing wildly, taking out some of the walkers as well as, more importantly, the truck’s gas tanks. When the melee is over, Glenn grabs his gear and starts walking. Tara follows. Rosita follows. Eugene reasons it’s better to follow them until they can find a new truck, or some transportation, a plan Abraham doesn’t like. “I’m smarter than you,” Eugene says, as if that settles it, and starts walking.

Rick and Carl and Michonne scurry away from the house while the others are distracted (we assume the two dead men turned), and head out down some railroad tracks. There they see a big sign pointing to Sanctuary, and decide to head there.

So, we’ve still got several scattered groups, and two vague destinations. Sanctuary, wherever that is and whatever that is, and Washington, D.C. We imagine some of these folks are going to start hooking up soon – and we’re not all convinced that Sanctuary will be, well, sanctuary.